According to a first aspect, the invention more particularly relates to a nondestructive testing device designed to detect possible thickness anomalies of a wall, this device including at least a sensor comprising emitting and receiving means designed to emit and receive ultrasonic waves along a direction selected from a set of directions including at least a first direction, and coupling means capable of transmitting, during operation, said ultrasonic waves at a surface of the wall to be tested.
Herein, what is meant by “thickness anomalies of a wall”, are clean and local thickness variations of this wall, or compactness defects like stripes, cracks or notches.
Such a device is for example described in patent document GB 2,013,344.
The device described in this prior document is the subject matter of two different embodiments, of which only the first allows the emission of ultrasonic waves along a well controlled direction but have to be handled manually by an operator.